Pet Trade Breeder/Dealer's Abuse, Neglect Caught on Video

Eyewitness footage and photos expose extreme suffering of rats, mice, reptiles, hedgehogs, and other animals at Colorado animal dealers’ warehouse and pet store.

See the eyewitness video from PETA’s investigation:

Witnesses worked at two businesses run by animal dealers Lynn and Kenneth Kubic, who have been breeding animals since 1985—Willards Rodent Factory, a rodent-breeding barn, and Jurassic Pets LLC, a pet store. Witnesses routinely found animals suffering in horrific conditions.

Based on PETA’s evidence, the Thornton, Colorado, Police Department executed a search warrant at Jurassic Pets on December 10, 2014, that allowed them to rescue some of the mammals, reptiles, and amphibians there. In March 2015, Kenneth and Lynn Kubic and their son and store manager, Brian Kubic, were charged with a total of 97 counts of cruelty to animals. In April 2016, Brian Kubic was convicted of cruelty to animals, and in May 2016, Kenneth Kubic was convicted on 18 counts of cruelty to animals. In June 2016, Lynn Kubic was also convicted of cruelty to animals. Brian Kubic was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $1,400 in fines and costs. Kenneth Kubic was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to pay more than $3,400 in fines and costs, pending a possible appeal of his conviction. Both men were ordered not to work with animals. Lynn Kubic was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $940 in fines and costs.

In July 2016, the Colorado Department of Agriculture announced that it had denied license applications from Jurassic Pets and ordered the Kubics to “stop all business activity” at their stores in Thornton and Lakewood, Colorado.

Despite having extensive evidence of persistent, widespread cruelty to animals since October 2, 2014, the Adams County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) did not seize or render aid to the thousands of animals kept at Willards Rodent Factory.

Willards Rodent Factory: The Kubics' Barn of Horrors

The Kubics bred rats and mice in a barn located on their Adams County property—just a few feet away from their family residence. Thousands of rodents—crowded shoulder to shoulder in filthy tubs on top of bedding saturated with weeks’ worth of waste—were kept in bins and metal troughs inside the barn during the course of PETA’s investigation. The Kubics did not employ a single full-time person to care for the animals. Lynn Kubic claimed that “you just don’t make enough money at this to … have a ton of employees or spend a ton of time out here.”  Hundreds of rodents were found dying, dead, and decomposing.

Tubs housing rodents frequently flooded, drowning rats and mice by the hundreds. Lynn Kubic—who admitted that she would not enter the barn after a flood because of the stench—lamented the loss of money but never the suffering of the drowned animals.

Cats were permitted to roam freely in and out of the “rodent factory,” terrifying rats and mice by opening tubs in which rodents were housed, defecating above them, and even tearing them apart. Rats and mice starved to death. Lynn Kubic admitted, “I probably lose more animals to starvation … than floods.” The Kubics fed rats and mice once per month, allowing the food to become moldy and covered with feces as the weeks passed.

The Kubics denied ill and injured rats veterinary care and instead whacked” them—swung them by the tail and slammed them into a hard surface to try to kill them. The Kubics admitted to freezing live rats and mice to death.

Witnesses found a critically injured rat, “Miss Rat,” whose upper jaw, nose, and muzzle were missing. Brian Kubic—the only authority present at the facility that day—instructed that Miss Rat be thrown to the free-roaming cats, adding, “It’s not like I care … [I]t’s one rat out of, like, 10,000 ….” The rat was taken to a veterinarian, who found that she was suffering from “traumatic injuries” and put her out of her misery.

Kenneth Kubic admitted that he shoots cats, while Lynn Kubic took kittens born to the cats and sold them in the couple’s pet store. At least two kittens languished without any effective veterinary care for obviously severe upper respiratory infections—and died.

Despite initial assurances that it would take swift action to rescue these long-neglected animals, the ACSO failed to act while animals languished, suffered, drowned, and died, deprived of the protections afforded by Colorado’s anti-cruelty statutes, which they depend on the ACSO to uphold and enforce.

Chronic and severe crowding and deprivation of basic necessities, such as food and water, created stress and fear among rats and mice, leading to frequent fighting.
The Kubics routinely left enclosures for weeks without changing the bedding, forcing rodents to endure filthy living conditions 24/7.
Many rats and mice were kept in waste-filled metal tubs so crowded that they had to stand shoulder to shoulder and/or climb on top of one another.
One dead rat evidently went unnoticed for so long that nothing was left of him or her but a bloody skull.
The Kubics created high anxiety among rodents by depriving them of all that was important to them—including sanitary housing and personal space—leading to cannibalism.
Dead rats, like this one, were often left to rot in tubs along with live animals for days and even weeks.
Hundreds of rats and mice died in Willards Rodent Factory, including these mice, who were all found dead on a single day in just one tub.
Kittens were taken from free-roaming cats to be sold. Some, like this one, were deprived of adequate vet care for obvious respiratory infections and died before ever reaching the store.
This rat was deprived of basic care and even pain relief for a bloody and swollen eye, as was the norm for this facility.
This rat was one of many deprived of basic veterinary care.
Lynn Kubic admitted that observing thousands of rodents daily was unrealistic: ''Shit. Look at all those mice.'' Injured rodents were left without appropriate care.
A facility manager said to throw this dying rat to the cats: ''It's not like I care … [I]t's one rat out of, like, 10,000 ….''
At Willards Rodent Factory, tubs housing rats and mice routinely flooded when water lines were chewed by rats or knocked loose by free-roaming cats, drowning hundreds of rodents.

Jurassic Pets: Little Shop of Horrors

The Kubics sold many of the rats, mice, and kittens from the barn as well as reptiles and mammals bred and/or kept in their basement through their grimy pet shop in Thornton, called Jurassic Pets, where animals were crammed on top of one another inside cramped enclosures, in which feces, rotting meat, and dead animals collected for days.

As at the barn, workers also “whacked” rats and mice and admitted to wrapping them in plastic bags in an attempt to suffocate those who survived the blows. One little rat languished for almost 10 minutes—gasping for breath and trembling—after being “whacked.” A worker then tried to break the rat’s neck.

Scores of ill or injured animals languished without adequate veterinary care, despite managers’ and Lynn Kubic’s awareness of their poor conditions. As one worker put it, “A trip to the vet is gonna be a hundred and something, so is it really worth our money to do that? … [W]e are a business. … If we were to take every animal to the vet that truly needs to be, there’d be no reason to sell ’em ….”

Witnesses found a hedgehog, since named Ghost, whose right eye was shrunken. Lynn Kubic denied Ghost adequate veterinary care for months, until her eye was so “infected” that it was “los[t].” Ghost was rescued, and a veterinary ophthalmologist found that she had been neglected so severely that her eye had degenerated and lost all vision.

The witnesses documented evidence of thousands of deaths including reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and fish, the latter of which occurred in multiple massive die-offs in the store, and some had been ignored for so long that their bodies were rotting. Brian Kubic stated that it was “too late” for many ailing reptiles and threw them into the freezer while still alive, where they suffered and died slowly and in agony.

Animals were routinely denied water. Many animals rushed to drink or soak themselves when water was provided for up to an hour.

These rat pinkies were two of many found dead in the facility. Facility owner Lynn Kubic admitted to freezing rodents alive—causing a slow and painful death.
Animals were routinely denied water or had only filthy water contaminated with feces to drink; when water was provided, some drank for several minutes.
Scores of animals, including this Chinese water dragon, who was found floating in stagnant water, died from unknown causes at Jurassic Pets.
At Jurassic Pets, ailing reptiles were thrown into the freezer while still alive and left to freeze to death.
Animals at Jurassic Pets, including this thin bearded dragon whose mouth was encrusted with discharge, were denied adequate care.
Lynn Kubic denied Ghost adequate veterinary care for her infected eye for so long that, as Kubic put it, her eye was ''los[t].'' Ghost was rescued and treated and has since found a good home.

You Can Help!

Please act now to help ensure that no more animals suffer at the Kubics’ hands.
PETA submitted court records of the Kubics’ convictions, detailed eyewitness statements, and video and photographic evidence to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which licenses the Kubics’ operations under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Please urge officials to ensure a permanent end to this systemic cruelty by terminating the Kubics’ AWA license(s).

Pet Trade Breeder/Dealer’s Abuse, Neglect Caught on Video

Sign Our Petition!
Sign Here to Spare Animals Further Suffering at the Hands of the Kubics!
I, the undersigned, hereby request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revoke all licenses held by Lynn, Kenneth, and/or Brian Kubic under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). I just watched PETA’s video from Jurassic Pets and Willards Rodent Factory and urgently look to you to ensure that no more animals suffer and die at the Kubics’ hands.

The video and the Kubics’ convictions on cruelty-to-animals charges, as well as their ongoing failure to comply with AWA requirements make clear that they must not be allowed to continue breeding, selling, and/or possessing animals. 9 C.F.R. § 2.12 and 9 C.F.R. § 2.11 enable the USDA to terminate these convicted animal abusers’ license(s). I respectfully urge the USDA to put an end to this cruelty for good.

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